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UK Offshore Wind 2007

The sixth annual BWEA Offshore Conference, sponsored by Airtricity, was the most successful to date.  Bringing together all interested parties in the offshore wind industry it provided a discussion forum, a learning experience and a networking opportunity.

The Conference began with a boat trip to see Burbo Bank offshore wind farm in the Mersey Estuary the night before the main event, courtesy of DONG Energy.  The wind farm is currently being constructed and this was a great opportunity to see the work in progress.

A warm welcome to the conference was given by Maria McCaffery, CEO of BWEA, who opened the proceedings.  This was followed by Chris Veal, Director of Airtricity and chairman of the BWEA Future Offshore Working Group.  Chris set out the BWEA’s vision for meeting the EU target of 20% renewable primary energy by 2020.  His talk culminated in the prediction that between 15 and 25 GW of offshore wind could need to be built by 2020 to meet this target.  This large scale target set the tone for many of the discussions that followed.  Alistair Buchanan, CEO of Ofgem, Rob Hastings, Director of Marine Estate at The Crown Estate and Duarte Figueira, Director of the Renewables Deployment Team at DTI were on hand to respond.  They appeared receptive to this level of expansion and hoped that this growth would help to meet the EU targets.

The Conference didn’t just centre on industry points of view: David Young, Executive Director of Natural England and Edmund Brookes, Deputy Director-General of the Chamber of Shipping, both gave their opinions on the way forward for the industry.  They stressed the need for early consultation and collaboration on finding the best solutions for all parties. 

The other sessions of the day discussed the factors limiting the expansion of offshore wind and the actions needed to overcome them.  The latest industry position and thinking was put forward and debated, which allowed knowledge and best practice to be shared.  Most of the talks touched upon the potential future targets and the work that would be required to meet them.

The BWEA could not have held this conference without the support of those who sponsored the conference, especially core sponsor, Airtricity, as well as the speakers, exhibitors and the membership.  BWEA would like to thank them all for their contribution.

A CD OF CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS IS CURRENTLY BEING PRODUCED, WHICH WILL BE MAILED TO ALL DELEGATES BY THE END OF JUNE.

Exhibitors:

Reception and boat trip, sponsored by DONG Energy:

A networking reception was held the evening before the conference, with a boat trip to Burbo Bank offshore wind farm, courtesy of DONG Energy.

Sponsors:

BWEA extends thanks to all of the event sponsors, without whom BWEA would not be able to put on events of such high quality. Extra special thanks go to Airtricity, core sponsors of BWEA Offshore 07.

Delegates from the following companies attended:

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• Conference home
• Conference programme
• "I was encouraged by the amount of interest in offshore and believe that the conference sent a number of strong messages to Government and to Ofgem about the need to sort out the licensing, planning and regulatory frameworks".
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